talesofbastionfandomcom-20200213-history
Evergreen Sentinels
The Evergreen Sentinels are a collection of elves from various professions dedicated to keeping the elven communities safe from the many threats that they have identified. This means protecting their homes from everything from the weather to invading forces. Lately, with the (relatively) recent lifting of the moritorium on entering the human lands, Evergreen Sentinels have begun travelling south in small numbers, with a couple reaching as far as Bastion, but the flow of Sentinel agents grows as the Strategists learn more about the global situation. Elves within the Sentinels are generally referred to by their role rather than by an actual rank, with "Master" being the title awarded to the elf with the greatest skill in the stated field. For instance, the Master Strategist is the one calling the overall shots, and the Master Ranger is simply the greatest Ranger among the Brightleaf Clans. It would sound like they're the same rank, but in fact the Master Strategist's orders trump anything that the Master Ranger says if their orders conflict, due to the difference in role. This is basically all of the structure that there is to the Sentinels - the First Regiment is likely better organized (and certainly has more manpower), even if individual members aren't as disciplined as the average Sentinel. The Sentinels divide their forces into squads (8 elves), warbands (16 elves), divisions (~96 elves), and war clans (500+ elves). These are composed of a mix of Sentinels designed to give them approximately the same composition of abilities and relative strength. Squads are led by the senior member of the squad. Warbands are led by a tactician. Divisions are led by a Senior Tactician, and war clans are led by a Strategist. The Master Strategist is the overall leader of all the Sentinels (with three or four Senior Strategists to advise him), speaking to the Clan Elders directly and shaping the overall policies and undertakings of the Evergreen Sentinels. 'Commander' - or indeed, any other title - is a bogus title that the elves adopted for convenience when dealing with humans, to show that a given elf is a leader of some sort. Sometimes, however, Elves of great proficiency are given the honorific "Senior" as recognition of their talents, meaning that while Senior Tacticians fill a command role, a Senior Mage or Senior Ranger is merely a highly proficient and honored member of the profession. Promotions within the command structure are based partly on merit and partly on the given elf's ability to defend themselves - mostly because the Sentinels have a long and honorable tradition of assassinating enemy officers, and have no desire for a reversal of that tactic to be especially effective. In terms of talents, Sentinels tend to be trained as either Rangers, Mages, Warriors, Specialists (a euphamism for spies), or Diplomats. Individual specializations vary widely, of course, but all Sentinels can be put into one of those five general categories. The primary point of confusion for outsiders is the difference between warriors and rangers - rangers are trained in combat and many become very good at it, but their actual duties include a wide variety of tasks, including tracking, scouting, stealth, hunting and gathering, and a few other things. In fact, they are something of a warrior/specialist hybrid. Warriors, meanwhile, learn primarily how to kill things, their skills include the weapons they use and the tactics they develop.